Variety is the spice of life

The year began with lot of uncertainties. Being not a big fan of wholesome changes, i was nervous to say the least and had lot of doubts. While the conscious me always looks for ways to settle and sleep, the mischievous unconscious one, has its own ways to look out for trouble. Its the one that never allows me to settle down and is always in contradiction with myself. Ides of March, marched in and moved me from one side of the earth to other. Nine months have lulled by and I am still not sure if i really wanted this one. I keep arguing with myself on the reason why i am here. After coming here, i had tonnes of time to reflect on myself. The setup here was a lot different from the places i had been to. The major change being, there were very few single people around and majority were family crowd. Took a while to adjust to that at first, for i had never been in such an environment before with so many "grown-up"s. I felt the same when i visited NJ to my friends house. The o...

If you are reading this post, probably the world survived Dec21 or atleast the blogspot server :)) have scheduled this a week in advance. Just for the kicks of seeing this post survive the doomsday :)) P.S: Intha final episodenu titlea podaati innum izhuthuruvenonu enakkay bayam vanthirichi..so pullayaar suzhi maathiri starting with it. :D:D Flashback mudinji ipo present day situationku story comes back :D Anil calls Ram and Priya picks the phone. "Hello..Priya??" asks Anil "Dai Anil..evlo nakkal unakku...intha numberla ivlo sweetaana lady voicela vera yaaruda pick pannuva" mocks Priya "Illa...Ram thelivaagitu vera ponna ushaar panitaano nenachen" "Adi pinnida maaten...aama ivlo naal kazhichi ippo thaan phone number nyabgam vanthucha" "Apdilaam onnumilla...i am in touch with Ram..unna thaan pudikka mudiala" "Aaama pasangalukenna..kalyanam aanalum kuzhanthai kuttinu settle aanalum..friendsoda arattai koothu kummaalamnu...

Roomie: Planning to go for haircut today itself Me: Why man? Wait till tomorrow..why waste 15$ if world ends tomorrow? Roomie: I want to look decent in hell..hehehe Me: !!!! Oh yeah...if you get a crew cut they will fry you in special double refined oil !!! Some parts of the world have already chimed in 21st december while rest are waiting with bated breath :) THE day of all days has finally arrived. This one is unlike Dec 31 1999, where in the new millenium made "anti-christ" and satan the heroes for the day and which pushed "End of world" scenarios into prominance, for the dawn of the new millenium had quite some positive vibes about it. My engineering friends took pride in the fact that they would be the first batch of Engineers into the new millenia. The babies born on that day hogged the limelights as millenium babies. The cyber world had beendone with its digital nail biting getting over the fear of the Y2K bug, which was a major windfall fo...

This time the review is full of all mokkai movies and books. So veridict ippovay sollidren..onnumay therala. Naduvula konjam pakkatha kaanum - A movie, that caught fancy right from its title. And songs were pretty neat too. The video of "Hey crazy minnal" sung by Andrea would've had more hits than the movie itself i guess. And she keeps getting prettier with each song and movie!! And with an equally chirpy voice to kill for. Many people who saw the movie, hyped it up about the humour content in it. More than the review, i usually go by the word of mouth review and it was almost unanimous that every one liked it and cheered the comedy. But somehow, i found it to be otherwise. The first half was dragging but considering the second half it felt breezy fast. There were too many repeat scenes and dialogues and more than being funny, the entire first half carried a serious tone to it. May be the director meant it as a spoof?? not sure. The really funny moments began bit la...

Every once in a while there comes a news that makes your blood boil and every nerve in your body tense enough to pop out. The Connecticut massacre would be one such news that would've shocked the very essence of humanity out of everyone. Such a mindless mayhem!! Butchering 1st grade kids with bullets..cha. Even to think of the incident to type is nauseating. Cruel, Maniac, cold blooded...all swear words of all the earthly languages put together can still not describe what happened. Schools are temples of knowledge and wisdom and above all discipline and this definition applies all throughout the world and supposed to be even a safe haven in case of natural disasters. Its beyond my little mind to even think of any plausible or implausible reason as to why a guy would vent his ire out on school kids. Its an impossible impossible thing for me to digest and accept. He had not just killed the 30 odd lives but destroyed those families and also the fellow students who witnessed it. It wou...

Silapala postsugaluku munna continuousa review postsa poatutu irunthenaa...intha blog pakkam vara pala kodi makkalla (read 5)  sila kodi per (read all) oru review postukum innoru review postukum pothiya idai veli vidanumnu sollirunthaanga. So..konjam gapku apruma i the review postings :D Talaash - Aamir khan padathoda main USP is Aamir khan himselfngarathu ulagarinja vishyam (Thala... Aamir khan yaarunu kekkamaateengannu i the pheeling. I the eagerly awaiting ur post on his Satyameva Jayate series). Review paakaama i rarely go to see movies. Apdi paakama poi bulbu vaangina padams pala. Intha padathoda review paathathu thappa poachu :(( Enna maathirye sila pala cashews, padathoda twista poattu udaichitaanga. In a way it spoiled the fun. But, first time viewing itself, felt like second time viewing for me. I could relate to each scene and how it built up to the climax. Aana, i felt, even without reading the spoiler, one could guess the twist. Oray matter,...

BasYaadein Yaadein..Yaadein reh jaa thee hain.. Kuch Choti Choti..Baathain reh jaa thee hain.. I stumbled on this song by Aryans (of Puraani jeans fame) while updating my playlist. True to its theme, it took me on a nostalgic visit on how i ended up with this song :) There used to be a Andhra style restaurant called Madhuri, right near the entrance to Wind Tunnel Road in Murugeshpalaya (Bangalore). It was exactly 800 meteres from our office entrance, atleast thats what the digital meter autorickshaw's showed, consistently !! Me and two of my colleagues will catch an auto during lunch. We used to order full meals. But even if we walked all the way back for digesting the umpteen platefuls that we gobbled, adichi poatta mathiri thookam varum. Will sleep walk through the rest of the day in office. Weekends mean, getting up at around 12 noon, thothify any friend on his bike, round katti adichify food in Madhuri and veetuku vanthu continue sleeping till late in the evening. If too laz...

Previous episode WEWEWEEWEEEEEEEEEE "Cough..What the heck happened here...cough cough...why is the fire alarm ringing" rushes in Rachel. "Well..err..i kept the tea pot and forgot to switch off the stove..its all burnt" mumbles Joey..scratching his head. "Oh..damn it..somebody throw a wet towel....NOT ON ME...at the alarm" cries Chandler at Phoebe, who is even more irritated to find Joey smiling to himself. "Why are you smiling u moron" "When you burn Tea..it becomes burn't'...burnt...now.. that's the way they should teach grammar in school" beams Joey pleased with his discovery. Phoebe throws the towel on Joey who ducks and it falls on Monica, who enters the house carrying plateful of pastries. She loses balance and everything falls flat on the floor. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo" Both Phoebe and Monica cry in unison. "I cried for dropping the pastries..What are you crying for??"  asks ...

I guess being called ugly is something that wouldnt find favour with the vast majority of us. More so if you are a sportsman and the adjective is not towards the appearance but on your character. But ( i like this word "but" it always brings with it a sense of change) there "was" a tribe of fierce band of cricketers, who contrary to the popular opinion, took pride in being called the "ugly aussie". They went around, bullying the world cricket ,giving sleepless nights to cricketers of whichever country they travelled and injury scares (more scares than injury) to the visitors down under. They were the modern day vikings of world cricket, who went around plundering runs and wickets and at a point, having become so disdainful were their attitude, that the cricket watching public, barring those down under began to cheer every Aussie defeat irrespective of their nationality or whether their team is involved in it or not. Pride bequeath fall, they say and the en...

First Thanksgiving in US. Everyone were going crazy a week before the day over what to shop, when and where and which is the best option to buy - online or in store. Every detail was discussed and dissected and plans were framed like military attack operation. Teams were formed and stores were assigned to each of them. Everyone were asked to be on touch over phone and any surprise sudden deals were to be announced immediately. All credit cards were fully recharged and were prepared for a good night full of bashing. The day finally came and the whole day was spent lazing around waiting for the sun to set. It was the proverbial calm before storm. As the clock crept towards 6 PM everyone started pouring out of their houses onto their cars and within the next half hour the entire complex was empty. And even that turned out to be late. For shops that were set to open at midnight, the parking lots were already full by 7PM. Electronic appliances stores had queues stretching for miles. As usua...

In my previous post, while mentioning about the quirks of Monk and how they make up majority of the episodes was wondering is it really possible to be so...hmm...confirming. Ipdilaam kooda yaarachum irupaangalanu yosichapo it reminded me of some quirks of my own :) School padikarapolaam if a paper...any paper(!!) happens to touch my leg, udanay thottu kannula othindruven :D My sister used to be a playful (read normal) soul and will step on anything despite my mom's warning that stepping on school bag means no padippu yerings in ur mandai. I took those warnings literally :) and till date none of my bags go anywhere near the toes :D aana padippu thaan yerina maathiri therila :D During school days, I used to wear my right socks and shoe first. Thappi thavari left socks potukittenna adutha arai mani neram kaalula etho weight katti vitta mathiri oru feeling irukkum. Will forcefully try to divert my mind into something else and wor...

Adrian Monk - America's answer to Sherlock Holmes. And my latest addi(c)tion to tv series. Its a detective series, where the lead character is the most eccentric of all detectives you would've ever seen. He is like "Thenali" Kamal with 312 phobias (as of season 6 episode 3) and is quirky at his wonderful best. An ex-cop, who lost his wife to a car bomb and part of his sanity, blessed with photographic memory and over the top analytical mind, the series revlove around not just how he solves each case but how he over comes each of his fear in the process. The way in which the stories are structured, in most of the cases, the "who" and in some cases the "why" also will be known before hand. Its always the "how" which would be the best part and would never be easily guessable. Well, thats the essence of a good mystery right. Monk episodes are testimony to it. The best part about the series is the subtle humour in each of the episodes. Kud...

Vara vara officela makkal thara kedupudiya vida government thara imsainaalaye makkal elaam vela paaka aarambichiduvaanga pola!! Facebook la yaar enna panraangannu inimay HR,network teamlaam monitoray panna venam. Antha antha ooru state governmentay ithelaam nalla paathukaranga. Mumbaila etho oru ponnu ipo recenta mandaiya poatta (Avvvvvvvv....pera type panna kooda bayama iruku!!) oru thaanai thalaivarukaaga ethuku bandh pannanumnu oru one line status poatathuku antha ponna pudichi ulla vachitaangalam mumbai kaaval thurai. Ithula uchha katta kodumai was..antha status ku like poatta innoru ponnaiyum ulla vachitaangalam!!! enna koduma saravanaa ithu!! Ipdilam restrict panni kadisila vela paaka vachiruvaanga polarukkay!!!  (On a serious note i guess it could have been preventive arrest to avoid any flare up and possibly for the girl's own protection..nallathay nenaippom!!) Inthe freedom of expression itha pathilaam elaarum medai poattu koovarapolaam realise pannathilla. But when it h...

Diwali @ foriegn desam apdina intha potluck, games, familya settle aagiruntha snacks and sweet distribution to all apartment veedu and bachelorsna oc saapaadu for couple of days. Guess this is the norm in most of the places. For this diwali, it was for the very first time, spent it with such a huge gumbal. Ithuvaraikkum entha oorla irunthaalum will get back to Chennai for festivals. This time that wasnt possible. But this experience was very nice too. Here they had arranged for potluck with some 20 plus families, with each one preparing a dish. Around 40 people had been invited. And i was made incharge for the most important and critical and essential and mandatory item, without which potluck wouldnt have been possible. Vera entha dish sample panna kedaikutho illayo ennoda item ilaama ethuvumay not possible and each one had to have one of it alteast. Avlo criticalana mukkiyamaana antha matter ennagareengala..athaanga Plate. Aairam thaan vagai vagaiya saapaadu pannalu...

There used to be a time when inbox would be filled with forward messages and pictures of lamps and crackers and godess Lakshmi and fundoo exe's. They were the fore runners for "mail storm"s i guess, where in each people marked on the mail dutifully either replied all or forwarded the mail to everyone else on their address books. When i was a fresher, we used to have a "competition" in our gang as to who gets/sends the most creative of forwards. My seniors used to complain that they have been seeing the same content as forwards for several years and some even went to the extent of creating rules to spam our mails :) We used to tease them as the dinosaurs of IT and our excuse always was that, though the content might be years old, that would've been the very first time we were seeing them. There was one akka in my team who would pass on her "critical review" for our mails and she always used to tell me that soon we would all get over it and there wou...

After a long long time, a James Bond movie with a decent script. Decent compared to the standards of those from the past 2 decades. Unlike the Harry Potter series, arguably the highest grossing franchise movie series ever, or any comic superhero series, which had solid backing of blockbuster story lines, James Bond series, are never really well known for their stories. Its neither on the adrenaline pumping category of a Jason Bourne series or the mind blowing situations of the Mission Impossible series. Every one knows that the character is a spy and come what may, he will kill the villain in the end, flirting and seducing every single female in the process. Yet, the franchise has survived 50 years and is still going strong. The titular role, is one of the most prestigious roles ever created in the movie industry and instant fame is assured in case of Box office success and so is instant doom of failure in case of a flop. I really wonder if anyone had actually read Ian Fleming's no...

FB has been filled with status updates of videos from MTV Unplugged 2. Especially from the yet to be released Mani Ratnam movie song "Nenjukkullae". More than that song, which sounds like a remix of "Enna ithu" from Nala Damayanthi..this one is my favorite of the lot. Loved the original version from Swades. Ennamo NRI's ellariyum ARR koovi koovi India vanthirunu koopdra mathiri oru super feel irukum. But this remixed version is simply awesome. Wait till 3:58 in video when he switches over to tamil. Goosebumps guaranteed. Awesome awesome rendition and amazing clarity. Bless you Rahman for these masterpieces.

                   Blessed are the forgetful..for they get the better even of their blunders. Many times i've wondered, if at all there was an option, to wipe out those memories of embarrassing situations, memories of sadness, of failure, of all those negative that which hang around mind like unwanted files, cluttering the space. The pain that is associated with them, which gets rekindled each time you revisit. The bouts of suffering that which gets reminded each time. The shudder that runs through the body and the cold chill on the spine reliving those embarrassments. If only we could, not just forget about them, but also make sure that they are erased forever. But even if we do erase those memories, will it make life any better? So goes the theme of the movie "The eternal sunshine of the spotless mind". First thing that attracted me to the movie was the title. Some sentences or ...

When i had taken learners permit, it was more for an id proof/address proof kind of thing and never had any intention of taking it up further. When roomies went for driving classes, joined them for fun and even after going for half a dozen training sessions, was still in no mood to actually take up the test. One fine day, it finally dawned that, Why not? Afterall i've spent so much for each of those classes, i might as well take up the test. All the while i was playfully attending without showing much interest on learning the rules and the moment i realised i had to prepare for the road test, it was throwback time to the school days. Looking at the way i was driving, the instructor booked a much early slot for me and all of a sudden things were not so easy anymore. The same roads, that were comfortable to Vrroom around appeared like obstacle courses. During the final class, looking at the way i was driving, the instructor asked me to pull over. "What the hell is wr...